Judge sets schedule for District 1 election

Jefferson County's Democrat and Republican parties will pick candidates by Aug. 6 in the court-ordered election for county commission's District 1 seat, a judge ruled this afternoon.

But independents can qualify to run if they get 914 signatures of District 1 voters by Aug. 27, Circuit Judge Scott Vowell said in an order issued late this afternoon.

The Nov. 4 vote was ordered in a ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court over a months-long legal dispute over how to fill the commission vacancy created when Larry Langford resigned to become Birmingham mayor.

The court's June 30 ruling, which came more than three weeks after the primaries for other Nov. 4 elections, left insufficient time for a primary in the District 1 race, lawyers in the case said.